Imprints
by PendaStar
Summary: Just like the prints on your finger, each person's is different. It is the same with their souls, and Kikyo learns that the hard way. NOT a KikInu pairing. First fic, please rate!


**A/N: Ummm…what to say about this fic…It's short, and it is my first, but don't be easy on me because of it. So far, it's a one-shot, but if I get more ideas for it, I might possibly turn it into a full story. I got this idea when I was watching a really weird ghost show on television. The psychic said something like, "The dead leave an imprint of emotions in their souls, and their souls wander the earth with nothing but that imprint from their former life." You'll see where I'm getting at if you read my fic! PLEASE review after! (I'll give you cookies! Lol) **

Imprints

_Love_

_Hate_

_Remorse_

_Betrayal_

_Murder_

_Anger_

_Loathing_

_Fear_

_Depression_

_Confusion_

"_Kill…Die…Love…Hate…Live…Give…Take…Greed…Beautiful…Ugly…Filth…Scum…Steal…"_

"Stop it! Leave me alone!" Kikyo held her head tightly with her hands and knelt down to her knees. But they would not stop. They never stopped. Night and day, all they would do was give her torment.

Ever since Kikyo came back to the world of the living with an artificial body, she needed to thrive off something to sustain her body. But this something was not easy to find and take. Food could no longer give her the nourishment it used to. Water was useless to drink, for it never satisfied her tongue. No, this something she needed to thrive off of could not be touched by human hands.

Every night, her faithful dragon-like demons would search all of Japan in hopes of finding a human dead. They took the souls from each dead body and brought them all to Kikyo. With every soul of the dead she contained in her body, the longer she could stay on this earth. But taking the very souls from their bodies came at a terrible price.

At first, Kikyo never noticed it. But the more she collected her souls, the clearer it had become. And soon, when her collection grew, it had become almost overwhelming.

With each dead soul, carried a curse. A curse of confused, mixed emotions. Each emotion was strong, and caused Kikyo to feel whatever the souls felt the moment before their death.

Some souls—to Kikyo's relief—had lived a long, well lived life and therefore did not carry the burdens of grief or regret to their graves. Other souls unfortunately were cut short either from the tip of a sword, a samurai's hands or from their own regrets. Each one of these unfortunate, damned souls each carried a different regret. A regret that filled them up with confusion, anger, depression….

So there Kikyo kneeled, bathed in the glowing sunset by the beach. She had come to the beach to escape the incessant drowning of emotions from within her, and to listen to the peaceful, serene waves. But it was only to her great disappointment to find that these emotions and voices would follow her everywhere. They would never let her rest in peace.

Kikyo's head began to pound, as the voices rang deeper and deeper into her mind.

"_Betrayal...Greed...Loathe..."_

"_Can't make things right…Why did he kill me?...If I should lose my grip…Don't let me fall...Pressure...Can't live without him…"_

"Shut up! SHUT UP! Please leave me in peace!" Kikyo screamed aloud to the voices, but they would not listen.

Even though she was on dry ground, she was drowning. Drowning in remorse, in anger, in guilt. Kikyo was already losing grip from the real world and becoming immersed in other's unsolved problems.

As the sun sank lower into the watery horizon, the pale blue, slim dragons glided silently towards Kikyo. Each floating dragon carried a glowing white orb in its tiny claws.

Kikyo held her hands in the air, signaling for the soul gatherers to stop coming any closer. "I've had enough! I don't want anymore tonight!" she breathed, bringing her palms back down to her temple.

Kikyo looked up at the orange-tinged waves and the low sun with a glaring eye. She could no longer find peace in the things that used to sway her soul with tranquility. Would being in the arms of the one she once loved soothe the pounding, stabbing voices that demanded her undivided attention? Could he take away these troubled souls?

No, even if he still loved her, they would not go away. Inuyasha was now in love with someone else. There would be no room for Kikyo in his life anymore. Had he still not gotten over the conflict they had endured in the past?

Kikyo was starting to regret ever coming back to the world of the living in the first place. Although it was not her choice to be resurrected, she thought it would be a good idea. She would get her one love back, have vengeance on Naraku, and see her little sister once more. But now that none of her true ambitions had gone right, her good idea went sour quickly.

Kikyo heaved a mourning sigh. "What do I do now?" she whispered to herself. "Do I keep on living here? Or should I go back to the world of the dead? Would it be better to stay dead, or be here living?" She thought of her situation carefully.

If she were to stay in this world, she would be remained with the burden of carrying the unfinished business and stress of the other dead the stayed there. If she were to destroy her body and release the dead from within her, she would go back to the world of the dead. But would she be more peaceful in death? Would there be more or less burdens to carry? With or without the other dead, the imprints of their deaths remained in her.

Not noticing it at first, she sensed a presence she had not felt for a long time. A presence that was both surprising and welcoming.

She stood up, trying her best to ignore the words in her head and meet the person standing behind her.

_"Can't keep my grip…She's loosing control…he killed my family…"_

_"Betrayal…Loathing…Anger…Confusion…"_

"It's been a long time, Kikyo."

It took a while to hear his voice amidst all the others. She was surprised he was here at all. Didn't he choose another woman over her?

"Inuyasha? Why are you here?"

His golden eyes glowed in the orange sunset, and his silver hair illuminated, making him look more handsome than Kikyo had ever seen. His tall stature towered over Kikyo, as Inuyasha poured his golden eyes into Kikyo's. He looked calm, refined, and solemn. These were such traits that Kikyo had never seen in Inuyasha before, but there they lie, behind those radiant eyes. Had he grown more mature since she had died moments after pinning him to that tree fifty years ago? Or perhaps Kikyo forgot just what he was like in person? Whatever the reason, he was not the same hanyou that the priestess remembered.

"You forget the past too quickly," Inuyasha told her with a slightly poignant smile. "I always come here when the sun sets."

Kikyo did remember. She remembered how she would come with him sometimes when the night breeze was cool and the sky was cloudless. Those times were the only times of joy and actual peace in her life. Now, she was forced to either die or suffer the agony of damned souls that lingered in her body.

Inuyasha sat down beside Kikyo and gently took one of her hands off her temple and placed it in between his two rough clawed hands. "I know what you do to survive, and it must be hard." He gave a long stare out to sea, trying to find the words to talk to Kikyo. "You shouldn't have to suffer like this. What is so important in life that makes you want to keep going if you are only going to suffer through it?"

Kikyo looked at him viciously. "Are you saying you would rather me dead than alive, Inuyasha?"

"No, I just want to know why you would choose to suffer over choosing a peaceful death." Inuyasha had done his best to keep his always flaring temper at ease.

She did not know what to say to this. "It is none of your concern," she told him shortly. The truth was, she really did not know why she did stay alive to suffer like this. Was it because of him? The traitor who eventually caused her death? Did she still love him, or did she want revenge before dying?

"I think it is my concern," he butted in through her train of thought quite rudely.

Kikyo fumbled for her words. "I….I don't know," was all she said.

Inuyasha stood up and gazed up where the sun had sunk into the golden waves. "I have to get going. It is your choice if you want to live or die, I cannot control that. But if the reason you stayed alive has something to do with me, I can't help you with that. It was painful back then, but I've moved on. Don't live in the past because of me, because I won't be there with you anymore."

Kikyo snorted loudly. "You've renounced your love that you once had so willingly given me?"

Inuyasha turned to walk back, but stopped a moment to speak. "I haven't renounced it, only left it in the past where it belongs." And with that he ran quickly out of Kikyo's sight.

Her head began to pound again with the force of a large drum. She slapped her hands back onto her temple and pressed them hard, but nothing she could do or say on the outside would save her from the torturous emotions and souls inside.

_"Hate…hate…love…remorse…kill…thrive..."_ Kikyo fell over and rolled onto the sand in agony. Her meeting with Inuyasha just now had made things much worse. She began to contemplate on her reasons for staying alive. Were they worth the torturing? Would it be better to just die? Kikyo did not know, but what she did know, was that her suffering of both the departed souls, and her own soul, would never stop.


End file.
